Barking Spiders

It's odd and also fkin annoying when you might express a lack of interest in so and so's display of fretw@nkery and the immediate retort is that you must be jealous because you can't do it. Thing is I bet many people can do all this flashy shyt3 but choose not to because they have the good manners not to.

Bluddy well love that era of Soul, the whole Solar/Boogie scene. Here's a much less well known - but seriously underrated - belter of a tune ..

They certainly put rock 6 string merchants to shame. Great threads too. Who are all the suits in the front row then?

Gloucestershire isn't blessed with great venues hosting mid-level well known bands other than the town/civic halls. The acoustics at Cheltenham town hall aren't great though legacy acts and tribute bands gig there mostly. There are quite a few venues hosting open mic nights and even though there's the 3,000 capacity Centaur at the racecourse Jools Holland's big band orchestra seems to be the only act that gigs there. Chelt's pretty good for local metal, punk and straight ahead rock bands (2 Pigs and Frog & Fiddle) if that's your thing and you don't mind crowds of gypsy's kissed students. I miss the Axiom where I saw a fair few good dance/electronica acts almost a couple of decades ago. The Cotswold Inn is pretty good for localish jazz, reggae and folk stuff. Seems to me most well-known ish bands that aren't over the hill opt for either Oxford or Bristol which are only 40 minutes or so away.

I've recently been playing a couple of Flaming Lips albums including Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. This track, arguably their most well known song, never fails to bring a lump to the throat. It's obvious why.

In general I'm more interested in players of any instrument that have an unorthodox approach i.e. that may look to some like incorrect technique. I don't have big hands and long fingers and when standing it's more comfortable to fret the bottom string with my thumb rather than index finger, whether on bass or guitar. I never critique other players approaches because they do what they like doing or are required to do whether it's just playing 8ths on the root note or 'Clutterbucking'.

Growing up in the 80s for me it was mostly Derek Forbes, especially the Empires & Dance to New Gold Dream era. I also nicked my elder brother's Stranglers albums to try and emulate JJ's tone on tunes like Peaches. Never did though.

Ballcocks to criticisms is what I say. If it feels right for you that's all that matters other than keeping in time and staying in tune. Imagine someone telling James Jamerson his playing might benefit if he'd used a couple more fingers . You sound absolutely fine to me and nowt wrong with your right hand action or fretting.

I'm regularly playing Osam, the new album from Tosca, which includes Dorfmeister of Kruder+... Fkin love Tosca, IMO the most consistent on downtempo/trip hop acts.

Whether you like someone's voice is all about opinion sure but IMO you can also state objectively whether someone has a good singing voice or not. I'm a big fan of Talking Heads up to Speaking in Tongues and David Byrne's quirky vocals work well within that context. However, objectively speaking he's not really a singer at all. On the other hand I'm not a fan of Whitney Houston at all but I acknowledge that she could actually sing

Agreed, and to him you can add 90% of rock and pop 'singers' of the last 50 years, e.g. Jagger, the two AC/DC frontmen, Ozzy O, DL Roth, Morrissey, Bowie, Ferry, John Lydon, Joey Ramone, Bjork, Kate Bush, Madonna, David Byrne, Joe Strummer, Dylan, Bernard from New Order, Neil Young, Lou Reed, Axl Rose... People say, 'oh but their vocals suits their music'. Mebbe, but they sure couldn't sing in other any context, which 'proper' singers can. Fr'instance Bowie next to Bing on Little Drummer Boy sounds dreadful while both he and Jagger utterly ruined Dancing In The Streets

I might be considered one of the guitar Luddites. Like with cars, guitar design peaked decades ago; Gibson 335 and the Les Paul (late 50s), Fender Strat and Tele (early 50s), IMO later designs esp the flying V and other typically metal guitars are as ugly as fvck. I have an Epi Sheraton II as for my money nothing beats the 335 design. It is to guitar what the E-Type Jag is to the car. As those guitars mentioned have long been perfect why do any more to them?

I was talking about what is the difference is between a singer and a vocalist. There is are no alternative words for a bassist/bass player, guitarist, drummer.

I've Googled about for definitions re what's the difference but my take is different. Out in the webverse there's the view that a 'singer' is typically e.g. anyone who fronts a band and who doesn't typically have training, may not always hit the notes and can make up for lack of what's widely accepted as a traditionally good voice with one that's characterful or distinctive. A 'vocalist' on the other hand is considered to be musically trained, always sings in tune and naturally, as opposed to how Bowie, Ferry and that bloke in Suede sang/vocalised. I've always been of the opinion that 'singers' are those who can actually SING i.e. maybe have a 3+ octave range, are trained and can turn their hand to any styles. I've always thought it's vocalists who are not likely to have had proper training and who may only be able to pull it off in a specific band or genre. IMO most rock frontmen fall into this category while classical, soul and jazz performers belong to the former. Any thoughts on this matter?

If not, you can catch it on iPlayer over the next 27 days...assuming you're a Soul fan. Talking heads include the Holland brothers, Mavis Staples, Barrett Strong, Fred Wesley, Steve Cropper, Marcus Miller and Martha Reeves. Very good it is too.

Too darn right. I've heard no rock version of a classic soul tune that comes within a million miles of even being half as good. Whitesnake's Ain't No Love is overwrought compared to Bobby Bland's original version and The Black Crowes' take on the Otis classic just doesn't cut it. Just my 2 cents worth. Worse still are the many pub bands workmanlike job of Mustang Sally. The Wilson Pickett version still sounds the best (even more so than Sir Mack Rice's original) but I've yet to year a pub band singer with the pipes to do it or any Soul classic justice. To sing Soul you need to have a great set.

or better still... about music in general not just the bass as a good number of us I guess are music fans first and foremost

Over the last few days I've been playing a lot of trance from its heyday in the late 90s-early 00s. I'm less into the stuff with girly vocals and the somewhat formulaic breakdowns and snare rolls but the more progressive stuff, instrumental, multi-layered and without the breakdowns and snare rolls. Here's a particular fave from 2001

Yeeeahhh! Can't go wrong with George Duke. Who are the guys with him. Fkin excellent, the pair of them!

The thread on Stuart Zender got me briefly thinking about respected bassists whose reps are based on a small body of work. In his case it's mainly the first 3 Jamiroquai albums. There are a few other personal faves who didn't actually record much e.g. Michael Dempsey - really just the first two Cure albums plus Fourth Drawer Down and Sulk by The Associates Deon Estus - Wham's three and George Michael's first 2 solo albums. Stuart Morrow - New Model Army's first 2 albums and ....that's it! Derek Forbes - with Simple Minds 'when they were good ' period up to Sparkle in The Rain (half a dozen albums) over to youse....

Agreed. Without being a fan of the music but a fan of the basslines the first 3 albums are where it's at. Thing about SZ his rep's based on a pretty small body of work topped by those 3 albums, which gives me an idea for a thread.

Like a couple of others here I'm not much of a Jamiroquai but I've often listened to the first four albums just for the bass. I'd say other than Louis Johnson and Marcus Miller, SZ's my main goto for learning lines to master. Nice to hear he's a down-to-earth sort of geezer.

Yes thank you, now I get it 😁 Hmm, but any no talent tack can write absolute meaningless rhyming couplet ballcocks as Noel Gallagher has demonstrated a hundred or so times. Radiox describe him as a songwriting genius!!!! WTF...https://www.radiox.co.uk/artists/liam-gallagher/which-oasis-songs-did-liam-gallagher-write/

I need to know. All explanations gratefully received. So, more examples please of lyrics that are utter nonsensical ballcocks and what your own interpretations are. I'll start with the entire lyric of Jean Genie. The song is almost as old as I am and to this day I've haven't a firkin clue what it's about except Bowie must've been out of his tree on 'ludes, mescalin, Charlie or whatever his poison of choice was.

Just wondering about big mistakes bands, individuals and companies have made especially when turning something down thinking it wasn't going to do much biz. The bloke who turned down The Beatles is probably the most obvious one. I just tuned into Planet Rock briefly and heard how Herbie Flowers was paid just £17 as a flat payment for laying down the bassline to Walk on The Wild Side while Lou Reed must have been raking it in due to its often being sampled especially on Can You Kick It by a Tribe Called Quest, which is one of the best known and most played tracks in hip hop.